NFL notebook: Panthers shut down Cam Newton

With two games left for each NFL team – this Saturday, Sunday or Monday in penultimate Week 16, followed by everybody’s finale on Sunday, Dec. 30 – some clubs are deciding it’s just not worth it anymore to subject banged-up players to more banging up.

Similarly, the Carolina Panthers announced that their eighth-year starting quarterback, Newton, won’t play anymore this season. He will remain on Carolina’s 53-man roster but will count among the seven inactive players on game days.

Taylor Heinicke will start for Carolina on Sunday against Atlanta, and likely be backed up by promoted practice-squad QB Kyle Allen.

Taylor who? Exactly. Back to him in a moment.

With Green Bay (5-8-1) now eliminated from playoff contention, interim head coach Joe Philbin was asked Wednesday if he might shut down Rodgers, who spent much of this season hobbling on a sprained left knee.

Philbin wouldn’t rule it out. A while later, however, Rodgers himself pretty much did.

“I think it’s a lot about leadership,” Rodgers said, per ESPN.com. “If I want to be listened to, and followed and looked up to, how could I stand here and say that (because these games) don’t matter for playoffs, I’m going to cash it in?

“That’s just not the way I lead, and I’m super-competitive. I want to be out there with the guys, and I look forward to being out there.”

As for the Panthers, the 25-year-old Heinicke originally signed out of Old Dominion as an undrafted free agent with the Minnesota Vikings in 2015.

He spent two seasons attempting unsuccessfully to rise above third string before being waived a year ago September. That’s where Norv Turner – then for a time the Vikings offensive coordinator, and now Carolina’s – got to know Heinicke.

After two-plus years in Minnesota, he briefly spent time last season on New England’s practice squad before the Houston Texans signed him in November 2017. Heinicke’s in-game NFL debut was brief; last Christmas Day against Pittsburgh he completed his only pass for 10 yards, before being concussed on a sack.

In five backup appearances this season with the Panthers, Heinicke has completed 2-of-4 for 46 yards. This will be his first career start.

Newton, the 2015 league MVP, has been playing for weeks with a screwed-up shoulder, which was painfully evident (especially for him) in Monday night’s loss to New Orleans, when he struggled to get the ball there even on short-distance routes.

That defeat dropped the Panthers to 6-8 and essentially eliminated them from NFC playoff contention.

Newton underwent off-season surgery to the same shoulder following the season. After the loss to the Saints on Monday, Newton said he’d tried everything from physiotherapy to acupuncture to help him deal with the pain, to no avail.

Panthers head coach Ron Rivera said at Wednesday’s news conference that he had had a “very good” conversation with Newton over the decision to sit him.

The Panthers’ current situation – a six-game losing streak following a promising 6-2 start, with Newton now benched – makes this about as miserable a holiday season for the Panthers and their fans as anyone could envision.

That means the Raiders now have two 2018 QB discards from the Buffalo Bills, as Peterman joins A.J. McCarron, whom Buffalo traded to Oakland in September.

Ho, ho, ho!

PRO BOWL FALLOUT: The usual outrage followed Tuesday night’s revelation of this year’s initial Pro Bowl rosters for the AFC and NFC. I say initial, because every year a slew of such selected players will cite injury excuses for not playing in the game, thereby allowing either (a) other worthy players to serve as replacements, who can call themselves Pro Bowl picks too, or (b) not-so-worthy players to fill in.

NICHOLSON SHELVED: Washington head coach Jay Gruden said S Montae Nicholson won’t play Saturday vs. Tennessee, after Nicholson was arrested and charged earlier this week for assault, battery and public intoxication. TMZ posted video purportedly of Nicholson throwing a punch that knocked out a man during a road-rage incident. The Redskins placed Nicholson on their reserve/non-football-injury list.

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It’s easy to draw the parallels between Derek Ryan and Luke Philp.
Philp just finished up his career with the University of Alberta Golden Bears last week, after all, and then signed a contract with the Calgary Flames on Tuesday afternoon.